Pop Notes

TRAUMA TIME: Mr. Mirainga has a new album in the works and a new label to release it. After debuting in 1995 on the O.C.-based MCA affiliate, Way Cool Music, the Orange County band has switched to Trauma Records, the label that launched Bush and No Doubt.

Singer Craig Poturalski said Mirainga, whose name is a corruption of the Caribbean dance, merengue, is downplaying the more typical punk-pop aspects of its two previous releases and emphasizing the Latin rhythm currents that surfaced in several songs.

"It's like a '90s Santana, without the guitar solos," Poturalski said. Trauma's co-owner, Paul Palmer, is helping the band produce the album, dubbed "Nueva." Palmer's credentials include mixing or production work on hit tracks by Bush, which remains on Trauma, and No Doubt, which went to Trauma's ex-affiliate, Interscope, after a legal tug of war over who owned the band's contract.